"Putin gave you this promise, so go and ask Putin"... This is the formula local bureaucrats use freely when refusing to do what they must do, as it became clear during the course of Putin's live phone-in programme. The excuse is used even when there should be no place for it: for example, in turning down a request for a flat by a World War II veteran. After the live video link Izvestia asked the Prime Minister what he was going to do about such bureaucrats.
At first Putin reacted with a gesture which in this situation could be interpreted as "sweep them out." Then he backed up the gesture with words: "It is not because I said it or promised it. These are decisions made by the government of the Russian Federation. They must be fulfilled. Those who do not fulfill them or cannot fulfill them should look for another job. But I assure you, they will all fall in and do everything properly."
In fact the main message of Putin's television appearance yesterday was to make everyone fall in. The TV studio was set up at Gostiny Dvor, the same place where Putin held his first live video link as Prime Minister. But a year ago most of the audience in the studio consisted of representatives of United Russia and Putin was answering questions both in his capacity of Prime Minister and Party leader. Now all the Party trappings were gone and the audience consisted mainly of the people who had already met with Putin during his trips across the country. The first video linkup was with the ill-starred city of Pikalyovo.
In general, this time the links were not with cities, but strictly with the places which Putin had visited during the year of practicing "manual control" of the economy. The Sayano-Shushenskaya Hydroelectric Power Plant, AvtoVAZ, KamAZ.
"We have already met, you visited us in Komsomolsk, you invited me to the conference room and because of your invitation they now call me ‘Putin's buddy,'" Alexander Astrakhantsev, the worker at the Amur Shipbuilding plant said into the mike. He was the man who several months earlier proposed to nationalise the plant, a proposal the Prime Minister cheerfully supported. "But this is not the point. The 1.9 billion roubles that the government should have allocated to our plant never reached us."
Putin promised that the money would be delivered before the end of December. However, the fact that the money "had been lost" on the way came as a surprise to Putin, government sources say. This is not the only instance of discrepancy between reports on paper and real life. Public sector wages have increased to a quite decent level, according to the statistics, but Putin was told that a nanny at a kindergarten in Murmansk was paid 3800 roubles a month. The Public Health National Project is still generously financed, but a girl by the name of Natalya from Magnitogorsk painted an apocalyptic picture of the local hospital: it hasn't been repaired since the 1930s, everything is rusty, medical equipment is outdated and pregnant women have their medical checkups in the hallways. Putin was jotting down notes: "I will talk with the governor." He made many such notes.
One problem, however, was easily solved. Aviation builders from Komsomolsk-on-Amur complained that they found it hard to recruit young specialists. It so happened that a group of Moscow Aviation Institute students was sitting in the TV studio. "Is there anyone from MAI?" In response to the moderator's question a forest of hands were raised. "Who is ready to go to Komsomolsk-on-Amur?" Only one hand remained raised. It belonged to Nikita, a fifth-year student. "I will tell the director general to help you get there," Putin said, thus sealing Nikita's fate. Not that Nikita was resentful of the decision, he was not even deterred by the prospect of living in a harsh climate. "I took part in an expedition to the North Pole," the intrepid explorer told Izvestia later.
All the previous video phone-ins invariably turned into a "shower of gifts" at some point. A year ago ,Putin casually arranged something like a Cinderella fairy-tale for Dasha, a little girl from a village in Buryatia. A call to the Prime Minister resulted in the whole family going to a New Year party in Moscow, a gift of a beautiful evening dress and a personal invitation to visit Putin in Novo-Ogaryovo. This time around a fairy-tale ended before it properly began. But it was a very near miss. A girl by the name of Tanya complained that her school had only three computers. "Tanya, like Old Man Khottabych..." Putin made a pause to build up suspense, "I will provide every pupil in your school with a computer."
At the end of his live phone-in Putin fell back on what is an obligatory part of such a format and started reading out questions he had selected himself and answering them on the spot.
"‘Do you skip silly questions?' I would like to ask the author of this question in what category he would put his own question?"
" ‘Would you like to live long, as long as you want to? If you want to go in history books as a citizen of the planet Earth call me back at this contact telephone. Sergey Dolgov.' Dear Sergey, I am quite happy to be a citizen of the Russian Federation. That is quite enough. But thanks for your offer anyway."
As they emerged from the studio, the people felt that four hours with the Prime Minister was not quite enough.
Yekaterina Grigoryeva